Strange happennings with Vista Business 64-bit and a 4850?

[scryer_360]

Recently, I built an E8400 on a P45, with 6 gigs of DDR2-800, a 320 gig hard drive, a 500 watt Antec 500 power supply, and a 4850.

When I install the drivers for the 4850, the computer takes HOURS to reboot. In fact, it did not reboot at all, I just eventually (five or so hours later) manually shut it off.

Also, this is after reinstalling Vista. Before, I had it installed and at random intervals after I started up the computer, I would get a blue screen of death telling me win32.exe was corrupt or some such (it ran across the screen really quick). There were other error messages as well.

Anyone know what could be going on here?

 

[shadowthor]

one of the ram sticks might be bad, have you overclocked at all?

 

[theblackbird]

Looks like a RAM problem to me as well. Let it run with only 1 or 2 sticks and see how it goes.

Btw, my motherboard manual reads: "Memory modules may require a better cooling system to work stably under full load (4 DIMMs) or overclocking setting."

 

[drumr1829]

does your mobo require paired RAM? If you have 3 sticks of 2 gb it may be 'looking' for the 4th stick if nothing in the slot. I guess you could always give memtest86+ a try. The weird thing is you said this happened after installing the 4850 drivers. How far along the Reboot does it take forever? Right at the post or at the logon screen? I've had a pc that takes forever booting because of a bad HDD. May want to listen closely for clicking...

 

[ulysses35]

I had similar problems with Vista and BSOD's - however after pulling my hair out over several nights I found the cause.

You say you re-installed Vista recently - the problem may be due to the memory patch required for Vista to realiably use more than 2 gigs of RAM... take 4 gigs out and then search on www.microsoft.com for the vista memory patch, download and install... re-boot... then re-install the rest of your RAM and with any luck it should cure the BSOD's

 

[Scotteq]

First off - Let's remove potential memory issues from the equation - Please drop to 2 sticks of RAM. If you have SP1, then KB929777 is already on your system.


You say Vista installed and worked, then when you installed the video card and drivers it refused to boot?? The first, obvious thing to check is that all power connections to the card are functional - IIRC there are two.


Now - some things you can do:

This shows you the different boot options, and where you can go from there:
http://www.vistax64.com/tutorials/88009-advanced-boot-options.html

How to check system files in Vista:
http://www.vistax64.com/tutorials/66978-system-files-sfc-command.html

How to perform a Startup repair:
http://www.vistax64.com/tutorials/91467-startup-repair.html

How to perform a full system repair:
http://www.vistax64.com/tutorials/88236-repair-install-vista.html


Start in Safe Mode:
http://www.vistax64.com/tutorials/123496-safe-mode.html

REMOVE the existing Video driver. If you have a 3rd party program, like DriverCleaner, use it to get any traces left behind.

Restart, then download the latest drivers from ATI and try the card again. 2 ways to do this - One is to right click the downloaded program's icon, go to Properties, and select 'Run As Administrator'. The other is to put the drivers into a folder where you can locate them again. When Vista says it found the device and is locating drivers, you will be able to point Vista to the file you downloaded. Then let Vista do it's thing.


The other "trick" to troubleshooting is to tackle one issue at a time. That's why I asked you to drop down to 2 sticks of RAM. We'll get the card running first, then tackle memory once you can see what you're doing